Record labels, artists and other Music Companies are increasingly exploring alternative income models for music such as: Subscription Model, Playlist Model (”Url as Mp3″ such as Spotify) and the Fan Funded Model pioneered by artists like Marillion Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails and then made accessable to all by companies like SellaBand.com, Kickstarter, Pledgemusic.com etc
Pledge music is a UK based site that provides artists the functionality to fund projects through fans. Fans are only charged once the target amount is reached. Pledge music also helps raise money for charity. Pledge charge 15% of the amount funded for using the service, this includes transaction charges. At the moment the site is not the best looking or easiest to navigate, however it seems that they have the fundamentals correct and with great functionality in they have a great basis to build upon.
Pledge Music was set up by Benji Rogers, a London Based musician who has been recording and touring since 1999. He was joined by Malcolm Dunbar whos career spans over 20 years, with A&R Director positions held at three majors and two leading independents including Island, Warners/East West, Mother/Universal, V2 and Sanctuary. With career sales in excess of 40 million units, Malcolm has been responsible for the signing and development of hit artists such as Lloyd Cole and The Commotions, Julian Cope, Orange Juice, The Christians, Tanita Tikaram, Longpigs, Bjork, Idlewild, Liberty X, The Datsuns, Dolores O’Riordan, The Rakes, Estelle and many more.
www.pledgemusic.com
Check out EES Pledge Campaign
ArtistShare allows artists to fund their projects outside of the traditional recording industry model. It utilizes a “fan-funding” model to allow the general public to directly finance, watch the creative process of the recording, and in most cases gain access to extra material from an artist. It was founded in 2000 by Brian Camelio, a musician/producer, it is one of the first models of its kind for the purpose of funding artistic works through the Internet.
Artists post projects which announce the creation of a new artistic work. The project consists of “Project Experience” which is the documentation of the project and “Participant Offers” which are priced from low to high. “Paticipants” (fans) buy Participant Offers of various levels in order to finance the project and gain access to the “creative process” behind the scenes. Depending on the level of participation the fan receives anything from a signed finished CD at the end of the project to an invitation to the recording studio. Artistshare charges a set up fee from $595 and a subscrition from $12.95 per month.
Artistshare has been successful with many Jazz and Country artists and since 2004, ArtistShare fan-funded releases have received a total of 4 Grammy awards and 14 Grammy nominations.
www.artistshare.com
MUSICGLUE.COM
Artists can give away tracks (MP3’s) but get email addresses and fan info in return. The tracks can be pushed out through the artists social media as well as peer to peer. When a fan tries to open the MP3 it asks them for a valid email address. This is an excellent way for an artist to build up their fan database before launching a fan funded plan.
www.musicglue.com
POSSE.COM
Here is an excellent idea for Fan involvement. Fans earn commission for selling concert tickets – a brilliant way to promote word of mouth and I will be using this for Electric Eel Shock for sure.
www.posse.com
A brief overview of Fan Funding in Sport
MYFOOTBALLCLUB.COM
MyFootballClub.com launched in August 2007, to recruit at least 50,000 football enthusiasts from across the world to purchase an English association football club. On 23 January 2008, 95.89% of MyFC members had agreed to the purchase of a 75% share in Ebbsfleet United F.C., thereby authorising MyFC’s purchase of that club. With its purchase of a majority share of Ebbsfleet United, MyFootballClub became the first online community to fully run a professional sports club in history.
www.myfootballclub.com
Projects that are similar to MyFootballClub exist in both England and in at least 11 other countries. Biggleswade United inaugurated myBUFC in September 2007, which aims to put the management of that club in the hands of paid-up members. The People’s Club was launched in October 2007 and is a similar scheme looking to allow fans to acquire and run a lower-level English football club.
Projects outside the UK include:
Brazil: MTDF, or “Meu Time de Futebol,” was launched in January 2008
Denmark: Mitsuperligahold, which was launched in August 2007
France: Web F.C. allows its members, called “entraînautes,” to vote on strategic and tactical decisions relating to a lower-level French club in the Ligue de Basse-Normandie.
Germany: Deinfussballklub.de was launched in April 2008
Israel: Web2Sport currently operates Hapoel Kiryay Shalom
Italy: Squadramia, which was started in January 2008, is an online community that seeks 20,000 members to buy an Italian football club. In late 2008 the web comunity purchased Santarcangelo Calcio 1926
Japan: Fujieda MYFC is a team playing in the Japanese regional leagues funded by online subscribers.
Poland: KupimyKlub.pl is a Polish project, was launched in May 2008.
Romania: Clubulmeudefotbal started on 7 July 2007
Russia: MyFootballClub.ru started on 1oth Jan 2007
Spain: miclubdefutbol.com was launched in January 2008
United States: MySoccerClubUSA aims to start a club from scratch and SaveTheVictory.org, is attempting to purchase the now-defunct San Francisco-based USL club, California Victory.
A brief overview of Fan Funding in Films
INDIEGOGO.COM
With over 2300 projects funded IndieGoGo is the king of the Fan Funding sites for independent film makers. It is free to post projects and the project owner pays a 9% marketplace fee and 3% transaction fees on funds raised. The project owner retains all rights.
www.indiegogo.com
Individual Films
www.ageofstupid.net
www.mymilliondollarmovie.com
Here are some other film funding I am not sure if they are active
www.biracy.com
www.indiemaverick.net
www.filmriot.com
www.aswarmofangels.com
Also check out Kickstarter a really well presented generalist Funding site – currently invite only for US based projects but looks sure to grow and become an interesting player
Related
OPENINDIE.COM
A site for screening independent films that is interestingly being Fan Funded through Fan Funding site Kickstarter
www.openindie.com
There has been a huge development in Fan Funding today
PUBLIC ENEMY – have signed up to fund their next album through the new flexible Fan Funding model launched by SellaBand.com
http://www.sellaband.com/projects/publicenemy
The new SellaBand model and the endorsement of Public Enemy opens up Fan Funding to any artist
But also to anyone who represents artists – artist managers – record labels – publishers etc
- It is these companies who have the infrastructure, which if combined with a Fan Funding plan, can really further the careers of the artists they work with
Fan Funding is the ultimate connection with fans
Raising money to make projects happen – money that is non-recoupable!
SellaBand have been pioneers Fan Funding since launching the first open Fan Funding platform in 2006
The new platform allows artists total flexibility and Artists keep all rights 100% of the time.
In an Industry changing move SellaBand is opening up Fan Funding for all artists… maybe the whole music industry:
The Funding Target Is Now Flexible
Artists can aim to raise anything from $10k to $100k, it means artists can test the water on a smaller budget, use the money wisely, have some success, find new fans and then return for a larger budget if they like.
Artists Can Set Their Own Incentives
Now artists can get creative with incentives and can respond to what fans actually want: studio tracks for remixes, badges, posters, stickers, guestlist etc. Want to contribute more how about a visit to the studio, or a custom track just for you, a private gig, or deluxe box set etc. It is all up to the Artist to give the fans what they want.
And if artists don’t deliver? Well they will struggle to build a fanbase or come back and fund again – A democratic process just as it ought to be.
With this move SellaBand has opened up Fan Funding to the entire music industry = Fan Funding is no longer just for unsigned bands – Artists who are working with indies or majors can use SellaBand and Fan Funding. In fact these changes mean that Record Labels, Artist Managers, Producers, Media Companies can all use SellaBand to assist the artists they are working with.
Revenue Sharing Is Optional
It will be interesting to see how much of an effect this has on projects. Do fans really want o.01% of an album? Or is it being involved in the experience and supporting the artist that motivates them. I expect different believers want different things and Artists can now offer that now.
SellaBand was the first open Platform for Fan Funding and is now the most complete
The changes being implemented at SellaBand will mean that Fan Funded will become a sustainable way for all artists to work with their fans to develop and control their careers.
I mange EES and when I first started managing them in 2003 I wanted them to take over the world, well of course I still do. For a number of years I really thought they were going to, it was at the time that The Hives and The Datsuns blew up and all the major labels swarmed around EES as the Japanese Rock & Roll saviours. but EES were not picked up… Electric Eel Shock were not surprised, they had been through the mill with Japanese majors in a previous band. So we continued doing our own thing recording ourselves on low budgets, licensing to independents and touring all over the world…
We watched many of EES contemporaries get picked up, especially when the Darkness blew up and A&R folk were signing any one with a guitar, big hair and a swagger. We saw most of them chewed up, spat out and split up… Then in 2006 EES unfortunately found themselves in a deal with a record label who were trying to screw the band – So out of necessity we went to the fanbase and raised $20,000 in return for guestlist for life. We called the 100 faithful who each gave 100 the EES Samurai and they helped us get out of the restrictive record deal.
In 2008 EES raised $50,000 through SellaBand – the new album SUGOI INDEED released in Oct 2009 has been licensed to Universal in Japan, a Sony distributed label in Germany and several other deals around the world. With a sustainable plan in our hands we were able to negotiate some really artist friendly deals that give the band the support they need.
EES remain in control of their career and play large festivals and gigs around the world – this is what they love doing. They wouldn’t be doing this without the support of their fans and Fan Funding.
UPDATE: In Jan 2010 EES launched a campaign with Pledge Music to fund some interesting fan releases to celebrate 10 years of touring the world.
As Fan Funded Music grows then more and more sites will launch to assist artists… We will be creating a list of start up sites here that we will be watching their development…
KICKSTARTER.COM
I really like this creative pledge based site that is extremely well executed. It is by no means limited to music and you can raise funds for any creative project. The financials are handled by Amazon and fees are payable. They charge 5% of the amount funded which seems unsustainable and may change when they eat up their investment. The main draw back with this site is that currently you need to have a USA bank account and address in order to start a project, I am told this is due to restrictions imposed by Amazon. They say that they hope this will be updated soon but they don’t know when.
This is what Kickstarter has got right:
“Kickstarter turns fundraising into a social game, where people have to work together within a time limit to reach a common goal. Already, we’re seeing that projects develop their own viral momentum… Once a project hits 25% of its goal, success is almost guaranteed. (94% of projects that hit that mark eventually hit their goal.)”
www.kickstarter.com
FEEDTHEMUSE.COM
Funding through donations. Artists can design their own campaign and what the money is used for…i.e. recording, promotion, touringing…
www.feedthemuse.net
THEHECTORFUND.com
Hector set up this donation site
www.thehectorfund.com
MUSICSLU.COM
Here is a different and novel approach, artists solicit pledges for their music, when the target has been reached they make it free for all under a creative commons license. Nice Design and interesting integration with Facebook.
www.Musicslu.com
Idlewild are a Scottish rock band, formed in Edinburgh, in 1995, comprising Roddy Woomble (lead vocals), Rod Jones (guitar, backing vocals), Colin Newton (drums), Allan Stewart (guitar) and Gareth Russell (bass). To date, Idlewild have released six full-length studio albums through EMI.
Part of Idlewild’s early success can be attributed to their singles gaining heavy rotation on Steve Lamacq’s Evening Session on BBC Radio, Lamacq often cites them as one of his favourite bands.
On 21 November 2008 the band sent an email to fans on the mailing list offering them a chance to preorder the new album (along with “exclusive packaging & including at least one bonus track”) to be “shipped within weeks of completion”. All fans who bought the album this way will also have their name appeear in the CD booklet and on a roll call on the band’s official website. The band explained their reasoning behind this in the email, where they said:
“After 11 years of recording and releasing records within the constraints of the record industry we now fee that the time is right and the technology exists for us to deal more quickly and directly with the fans. It also allows us total control of our music and will ultimately mean that should you choose to get involved you will hear our music as soon as it is available. Although the album will have a more traditional release some time later in 2009 we hope you will support us in our efforts to try something new and choose to pre-order the album now.”
The album titled Post Electric Blues was mailed out on June 10th 2009.
